"for the sake of humanity"… A small town American high school history project changes lives worldwide. These are the observations of a veteran teacher- on the Power of Teaching, the importance of the study of History, and especially the lessons we must learn, and teach, on the Holocaust. Click on "Holocaust Survivors, Liberators Reunited" tab above to begin.

Appel- the roll call at Belsen

Here is the very first website of a survivor that popped up when I did a random search of “holocaust survivor art” to find examples for students for a project we are doing. I read her bio, and put two and two together ( in Belsen, liberated by the American Army near Magdeburg in April 1945), and sent her an email asking if she was on the train near Magdeburg…sure enough, can you believe she was on the train??? With her siblings we are now up to 33 survivors, I think… Sara lives in Israel.

“Sara Atzmon-Gottdiener was born in 1933 in Hajdunanas, Hungary, as the fourteenth of sixteen children. At the age of nine, her father and four of her brothers were taken to a forced labour-camp. The family was deported to Auschwitz in 1944 with a children’s transport. At the Polish border the train stopped, and, after a stay of some days, returned to a forced labour-camp in Austria. In the same year, 1944, her father died in her presence of hunger and depravation. At the end of November 1944 they spent four days for the second time, going through the disinfection camp at Strasshof. They were stripped naked and were “taken care of”… Half clothed, they were sent to Bergen-Belsen. They were made to stand outdoors there for long hours in the snow, during the appel. The small girl had a red child’s shoe on one foot, and a lady’s shoe with high heels on the other.

In April 1945 they were liberated by the American Army near the town of Magdeburg. At the age of twelve, weighing seventeen kilograms, Sara received the present of her life once more. Her father, Israel, three of her brothers, four nephews, her grandmother, brothers-in-law, uncles, cousins and many others had not returned from the camps.”

Yes I was in this train with my Mama and 11 brothers 1 nephew. Most of as, we arrive to Israel (Palestine) 3 months later. We survived, 13 from 16 brothers . Now we are 8 brothers . But, we gather[ed] in 2007, and we are now about 200 persons in the family. Most of them live in Israel.